I’ll be honest if I say that we’ve
thought about collaborating with Samsung for a long time. We wanted to do
something unusual, bright, colorful, which will be different from what’ve done
before. So for this project we’ve decided to choose the most exotic and
authentic country! Initially we’ve got a couple of variants: Mexico, South
Africa and Argentina. But then someone named this magical, lure destination
“Cuba”. And the choice was made!

I think for Russians Cuba is always a
byword for faraway free country, lost somewhere in the ocean. In reality the
island is indeed very unusual, even peculiar. It looks as if the time here
stopped and you’re diving in the atmosphere of 60-70s and freeze
starring at everything around.

In Moscow we’ve already decided the
location of our #FollowMeTo shot – near the retro cars with Capitol in the
background. It turned out exactly as we’ve planned: bright, edgy and joyful.

Also Cuba reminds about impulsive
women in colorful clothes and headbands. There is a famous photo of past years
on which old ladies stand near bright-yellow wall in colorful dresses smoking a
pipe. We managed to recreate this shot but in our personal style. Of course our filming team drew attention of
locals, imagine, beautiful Nataly in a national dress, chatting old ladies,
videographer, producer, talking on phone in Russian non-stop and me with tons
of equipment… Almost all passers-by stopped and starred, cars were honking at
us and created a traffic jam. It was a nightmare! In the crazy tempo, which accompanied
our work that day, the Samsung watch Gear S3 is a must have! It’s very
convenient, as everything you need is right in your hand, or rather on it:
weather, currency exchange rates, mail, and access to social networks. During
the shoot we could just decline a call with a single movement of my hand. This
“smart” gadget saved us a lot of time.

Another thing we wanted to photograph
was the panorama of Havana during the morning. And, in my opinion, we found a
perfect spot, from we could even include an old church into our shot. This was
our third hot in Havana.

What else is Cuba associated with? The
Caribbean, the sun and white sand, of course… For a vacation like this tourists
mostly come to the Varadero resort. This is a popular place with beautiful white
bays, large shorelines and expensive hotels with the “all inclusive” system.
But we decided against venturing so far and easily found an amazing beach in
the suburbs of Havana, where we took the fourth picture of #FollowMeTo.

We couldn’t forget about famous Cuban
dancers! The most beautiful dace on the island is salsa. It is nothing like a
classic Latin American dance. It’s a crazy mixture of absolutely different
styles and movements. All of the movements are broken, wild, almost
spontaneous. As soon as music starts playing, every Cuban turns from an
ordinary person into a skilled dancer. The shoot with dancers took place in the
burnt theater building. Its walls are painted with graffiti, and there’s carton
instead of an actual roof.

In the end we made our way to the city
of Trinidad - the farthest point. It is a UNESCO heritage site. Bright,
colorful, authentic place with one story houses, retro cars and very friendly
people. We were saved by the navigator in the Samsung watch Gear S3: we easily
made up the most complex itineraries and didn’t get lost once.

Speaking of the
watch, it has another important and convenient function. Duo Watch is a
program, which can showcase two different time zones on one screen. We always
knew what time it was in Moscow and could easily see when we should call one of
our colleagues without waking them up at 2 o’clock in the morning.